Belleman

1975 Belles with acoustic suspension bi-amped subs in our Hard Rock Cafe room. Filters modded with the help of fine folks on this forum

I scored a pair of Belles '75 vivntage from a fella's grandpa some time back. They are saawweeeeet and pristine too. All I did was upgrade the caps in the existing network complete. Moved a tap on the transformer with the help of good folks here and put the P trap on the horn. I then added dual acoustic suspension bi-amped subwoofers coming in at about 70hz and I absoluttely LOVE the sound! I think a lot of that has to do with the tube pre and tube SET mono blocks too but I have no desire to radically change or add anything more to these lovely speakers. Good luck and enjoy!

No pics? Ohhh nuttin to really show. I've posted them already earlier. We are doing a Hard Rock Cafe theme in the room and when we get it done I'll post a pic then.

Put the P traps in this weekend. Much better! Thanks for the tip. Between changing out the caps, switching the transformer tap, installing the P traps and bi-amping a good sub why, these ole Belles sound real nice. Thanks to EVERYONE that helped!

Hey thanks DM... I think I'll try a bit of insulation as you mentioned in item one. If its a peak in the 400 to 600Hz range, what's the fix? New squaker, new network other than the AA? [:^)]

That was my first guess. Anyway, I may just get used to it as I am married to these speakers for a while as we remodeled a whole damn room around them. I may try some budget sound deadening treatments to the box and see what happens if I can do it on the cheap. If it's the squawker horn then I'm simply stuck with that for a while. (but for some reason I don't want to believe that's it).

No, there's no vibrations and I'm currently running a quality sub woofer bi-amped at this time. I hope to build dual subs in the near future. Product like Black Hole five isn't installed to stop cabinet vibrations. I'm not hearing cabinet vibrations. I'm thinking I want to deaden the interior box and stop this echo type of sound. Everything is tight cabinet wise on the Belles, it's just a sound that may be natural to this horn type of configuration.

Well so far the wealth of help and information that has come from this site with respect to my newly acquired '75 Klipsch Belles has been awesome. I've upgraded the caps in my AA networks and even changed a tap for the squawker on a transformer. The sound keeps getting better and better. So I've been listening and listening to music that I am familiar with and I'm noticing one thing with respect to the sound. At lower levels it's not so prevalent but as I turn it up it is. I tend to hear a "box" sound. It sounds, for lack of a better word "boxie". Does that make sense? Not sure how else to describe it. I'm wondering if the internal cabinet for the 15 inch driver could use a material like black hole five or such. I have used such product before on cabinets and it mellowed out the box sound. Anyway, hopefully others have been across this bridge before and might have some ideas for me. Maybe I am barking up the wrong tree here all together. I just don't know...

Say Erik...whats the wattage on that coil?

Erik, you have a PM sir...

1975 Belles and yuppers, the spring-loaded push terminals. Oh so you've been on the Lemmon before? We had a huge fire up there a couple of years ago you prolly heard about. I've not been up that way in a while. Would be nice to go cool off there though.

Heyyyyy awesome info there Erik. You know I'm gonna try that lil trick. Thanks dude! (high five)

I'm real surprised too and damn happy that's for sure! I'm sensitive to highs and tweeter sound also and I dearly miss my Raven tweeters and their beautiful shimmering highs as compared to the stiff, tish, tish, tish of these horn tweeters. (Frankly, I've never heard any highs as good as the Raven true ribbons) But regardless of that, all I know is that what I did has made me want to take off work tomorrow and listen to LPs all damn day long. This simple tap change nailed the sound I thought these could do. I'm loving the big speaker dynamics in my new dedicated two channel room.

oh, oh, oh...sorry Tom....guess I got a bit excited. Well I had upgraded the caps in my AA network and in order to get the 13 value I paralleled a 6.2 and a 6.8. (Thanks Bob) So when I say I "cut out a cap" I cut out the 6.8 and I also moved the transformer tap. It made these sound much more tame and more involving to me. Before they were just to damn rude and in my face.

It worked! It worked! (jumping up and down like a kid) Gawd I love an easy, cheap fix like this. After work today I fired up the ole iron and moved that tap and cut out the capacitor. Might I say, what a difference! Sounds soooooooo much better guys, whew. I can listen to these now for hours and enjoy it much more. This will hold me over for now until I can get a lil money saved up to try more fun things! Thanks to EVERYONE here for their kind and helpful responses! You guys ROCK! (special thanks to Bob. Your da man)

Thanks Erik... Yup new here, look for the thread "Peeking in to say HI. Can I play?" LOL umm yeah, I can solder. Was slinging solder as a kid in my Dad's TV/Radio repair shop back in the days before sand, errrr transistors. Opps, does that make me old? Anyway, I have already upgraded the caps in my AA networks and my intent of this thread was to have the Klipsch Gods here clue me in as to an easy fix for my problem. And of course y'all came through. Thanks folks! (Angle food cake LOL, ya had me going for a second there LOL)

Wow Al, that would be the best way to go no doubt! But for now the bank account is limited. Especially after getting my grubby little hands on these pristine Belles in the first place. My wife would hang me out to dry if I drop more bank anytime soon. Bob! Bob! Once again, your input is greatly appreciated. Hopefully this will help just enough for now. At least until I can do more dramatic things. I knew there something I could try! I tell ya, what a great forum full of sharp, helpful folks. It has renewed my interest in the audio hobby. Y'all enjoy the Fourth of July now and be safe!

Hi folks out there smarter than me. I'm wondering if you can help. After replacing the caps in my AA networks of my '75 Belles I have listened and listened. I've been listening for hours to all kinds of music. While I like what I am hearing for the most part, I do have to say that these speakers are just to bright. Vocals are to loud and the squawker seems just to much, in my face. I can't afford big time upgrades or new networks at this time. Can I pop a resistor in there somewhere to help calm this down a bit or something simple like that? Thanks ahead! []

Until I can get my stereo Belle stand subs built I thought to toss in my SVS sub from the active crossover for now. Let me tell ya... There's the bass! It works grrrrrrrrreat! Fills in that needed bottom end for certain music that the Belles just couldn't reach. Man does this sound good now. I can't wait to get my subs built. []

Well the room is all painted and the Belles are in the corner. I took my all in one video and audio rack and jerked all the video out moving the rack to the room and giving the two channel the space it needs. The appearance of the rack doesn't work for the new room so I'll likely butcher it for the 1 inch rod and hardware to build a lower level system in appropriate color. We are doing a Hard Rock Café theme in the room, should be fun, fun, fun!!

That did the trick Rick. Thanks for that reminder! Center image is there, whole system sounds amazingly better. I have Neil Young's Harvest on DVD A (only DVD A I have LOL) running now and it really sounds GREAT! It was what I was hoping for outta the Belles. I still need the subs but in the mean time, I'm a happy camper!

Ah, good idea Rick. I forgot all about that. I'll try it and let cha know. Thanks!

So this weekend I finally got the Belles hooked up to the 845 SET mono blocks. The networks have refreshed caps and the bad tweeter diaphragm was replaced. The speakers are in a 16' x 16' room with the ceiling sloping up from the wall end were the speakers are in corners to the other end by about 2 feet. There are two door openings in the room. My center stereo image isn't there at all, not sure about that one. It very well could be that I can't sit back away far enough. Also these speakers need my stereo sub woofer idea big time. Quite bass shy. Fortunately I have all the parts just have to build some cabinets. It's nice to hear they are dead quite from my gear though as I was a bit worried about that at first. These speakers sure do crank though whew! Make my ole MTM monitors look bad in the dynamics and SPL dept. The highs however from my MTM Raven tweeters sure do sound better though. The speed of decay from a true ribbon offers a shimmer that the Belles don't do and I already miss that. I'm so spoiled by the Ravens not sure what I'm going to do about this. I had a bit higher expectations, but overall I'm happy. I'm sure I'll be modding these Belles however to get them to a better place. I have a gut feeling that a lot of my problem is the AA network design itself. I'll get my subs built and go from there. Anyway, just wanted to post my impressions to all the old pros out there. []

Dr. Who, I'm using a Dahlquist DQLP1 Variable low pass filter from a Soundcraftsman 250 watt per channel amp. I just need to build a proper box and thanks to you, it looks like I'm half way there! Thanks to all for the input! This forum has sure been friendly and welcoming. Now, all I need now is find some damn time to play at this...ugghhhhh

Well, my speakers are in the corners but not angled across the corner so no space back there. Yes, I have two of the 12" Titanic's. Tons of xmax! Surely I could make a proper volume cabinet for these to fit under the Belles. The Belle has a large footprint so it would have to elevate them to high I wouldn't think...